Hils HZ7 Satin Honey Yellow

Let me start by saying this is my first headless guitar and my first seven string. Veteran extended-range players can treat this review as the enthusiastic field notes of someone who has just discovered a new continent and is still figuring out where north is. Disclaimer over.

Build and First Impressions:
The Honey Yellow finish is…is correct. That's the only way to describe it. It made me question every colour decision I've ever made, including my wardrobe. The body is light, the neck is incredible, and it has stainless steel frets. Mine arrived with no sharp edges and no blemishes worth mentioning. There's a tiny mark on the fretboard that may or may not be the wood itself doing wood things. The rubber feet on the body allow it to stand upright and lean against your amp, bookshelf, or body part of choice. Results with that last option may vary and I accept no liability.

Pickups and Electronics:
I plugged it into my interface with my gain set to the same level I use with my EMG-equipped LTD. The HZ7's pickups disagreed with this decision and proceeded to melt my face with what I can only describe as a mildly disguised aggressive enthusiasm. Rude. Dialling in a good distorted tone requires some EQ work since these pickups have strong opinions on your choice of tone and they will share them. The coil split, refreshingly, does not sound like a dying wasp inside the electronics cavity. The push-pull tone knob engages with a metallic clang that resonated through the guitar body and my molars simultaneously. Clean tones are full and rounded, split cleans have a satisfying glassiness with a lower volume drop than you'd expect from stock pickups at this price. The active ceramic rails are a tad hot, and probably won’t be to everyone’s liking. This justifies spending more on a new set of pickups. Although let’s be honest, you don’t really need an excuse to equip this guitar with a set of Bare Knuckles or something so go forth. Don’t let me or this review stop you.

Hardware:
This is where we need to have an honest conversation. Once set up and tuned, the guitar holds pitch admirably and intonates easily, which is a genuine relief for anyone who has spent quality time making love (not really) to a Floyd Rose at midnight. However, the tuning process itself requires more force than expected (which, as I understand, is a known headless guitar characteristic rather than a Hils-specific failing). Machine oil and/or thrust bearings help, specifically F3-8M axial ball bearings, available on Amazon for around 12 EUR, which slot between the tuning shafts and the bridge and aid tuning considerably. Hils has a YouTube tutorial and even sells the same components themselves…in the US. EU customers are presumably expected to find their own bearings, literally and figuratively (or import them in if you like). The tuner indentations fit the edge of a guitar pick, which works in a pinch, or you can 3D print a proper tuning key for actual torque without the friction burns. A few screws stripped with less force than expected, which is the one note of genuine caution here.

Verdict:
The HZ7 is worth the money, hardware quirks included. It needs some TLC (don't we all), but if you're spending this kind of money, you probably know your way around a setup, or are willing to find out.

TL;DR:
Build: Excellent. Light, fast, beautiful, stainless frets. Get a pack of NYXL 11-64s and down tune to Drop G for some fun times.
Electronics: Hot pickups with...character, genuinely usable coil split, very satisfying knob clang for people who enjoy knob clang (heh).
Hardware: Tuning is an adventure. Bring thrust bearings and patience.
Overall: 7.5/10.

A lot of the features and build quality on the guitar is good, but I've had to return two of these in a row, after the first one couldn't be fretted on the bottom string without killing the string, and the second one arrived with one of the tuners completely wrecked by some form of tool.

What I can gather from other reviews is that they have inherent issues with string height/neck relief/fret buzz that is impossible to correct through a good setup, and my own experience with two of these confirms that.

I really wanted to like this guitar, but I'm not giving them another shot.